Sinclair Spotlight: Best Road to Their Future

A winding road from Brazil to Sinclair has former soccer star still smiling

It's no exaggeration to say that today's students are living in a far more international world than even those of just a decade or two ago. You can find a prime example of this fact, usually with a broad smile on her face, when Juliana Fonseca is sitting at the front desk of Sinclair's International Education office.

International students coming to study at Sinclair are a growing segment of the student body, with 250 students enrolled this semester. That's up 51% from just two years ago. Students are finding their way to where the best educational opportunities exist, even if they have to travel across oceans and into new cultures to make it happen. At Sinclair, they find the opportunity of more than 220 program choices at an affordable rate, and the hope for many that it becomes a gateway to continued educational growth.

Fonseca's story is a perfect example of just how this can happen, and how far motivated students will go to remain in pursuit of their dreams.

Fonseca grew up in Brazil, a good student and a promising soccer player. Back in 1999, the women's soccer team from Union College made an exhibition tour of the country and played her local team. Brazil, of course, is a soccer hotbed, and the Union coach was so impressed that he offered Fonseca and two of her teammates scholarship opportunities to come play for the college in tiny Barbourville, Ky.

"We packed our bags and headed off. It was a great opportunity," Fonseca said. "I was 21 and living in a dorm. I didn't have a full scholarship, so my second year I worked as an RA (resident advisor) in one of the dorms."

Fonseca was loving life as a student-athlete, but after two years, some of the scholarship money went away. Unable to swing the expenses, she reluctantly returned to Brazil. The timing worked out to be just one week prior to the 9/11 attacks, so her mother was actually quite relieved to have her back at home.

Fonseca, though, was not near done with the idea of pursuing education through traveling. She had difficulty transferring her credits to Brazilian schools, so she started working, but also traveling. Over the coming years, she experienced the world with visits covering months at a time to Dublin, Ireland, and then to Australia and New Zealand. She worked for several years for IBM in Brazil, and then a sports marketing firm in Sao Paulo.

It helps that she has a brother who is a flight attendant, which allows her to travel cheaply. When the Brazilian economy last year started to slip into its latest swoon, Fonseca decided it would be a good opportunity for another trip. The destination this time was a return to the U.S., to see many of the old friends she had made playing college soccer.

"I had a lot of friends living in the Cincinnati area," she said. "I was staying with one of them, and we began to talk about the possibility of going back to school. She knew about Sinclair and said it was a good school and it would be affordable."

A few phone calls later, along with a return trip to Brazil to arrange her F1 study visa, and Fonseca was on her way to starting her pursuit this fall of a Sport and Recreation Education degree at Sinclair.

Now 38 years old, she maintains an enthusiasm level that allows her to easily fit in with younger students around her.

"I like being a student," she said. "I have my friends, and they tell me that I've seen so much. I don't really want that much – just to live my life and travel once each year."

Her goal is to get a job in sports administration, and she's learning about a number of different sports in her new studies to be prepared for anything. She's also taking courses like Sociology, History of Western Civilization and Public Speaking.

She loved watching the Olympics take place in her home country, especially the level of enthusiasm that emerged for women's soccer, which traditionally has paled next to how Brazilian fans respond to men's soccer.

She keeps a picture she loves from Facebook on her phone of a little boy wearing a Brazilian national soccer jersey. "On the back, it says 'Neymar,'" she said, referencing the current national men's hero in the sport. "But he crossed it out and put the name 'Marta' under it, with a heart drawn behind it."

Marta was the star of the Brazilian women's team during the Olympics. Fonseca continues to play herself, having paid the price last year by suffering an ACL injury. But she's back on her feet now.

As the world learned during the Olympics, Brazil is an interesting and diverse country. It is a land of great beauty, but also has just seen its economic troubles result in the impeachment of the country's president, Dilma Rousseff. Just as Fonseca is learning by being abroad, her presence at Sinclair becomes an opportunity for other students to learn more about her native country.

She is one of five Brazilians currently studying at Sinclair. Brazil will be the focus of a series of seven programs put on by Sinclair's International Education Committee this fall. The next program, "Brazil Music Appreciation," is set for Friday, Sept. 16, from noon-1 p.m., in the International Education offices, located in Building 10, Room 312.

Adding more international flair is yet another welcome educational opportunity for Fonseca in her journey.

"Being involved in International Education is something I really appreciate," she said. "I'm getting to know people from all around the world, people with so many different accents. It's nice.

"Yesterday, a student name Joseline came in and we talked. I found out she's from Papa New Guinea. I was like, 'I'll bet it's beautiful there.' I felt like we could easily end up friends, and then maybe I will come and visit her there sometime."